


Crystalline Core

by qwanderer



Series: Midnight Mystery [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: First Time, Jotunn!Loki, M/M, Smut, but with feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-20 21:29:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwanderer/pseuds/qwanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AKA: Crystalline Alignment, Chapter 9 3/4</p><p>This is the crown jewel, this is the arc reactor. This is the living core. This is everything I wanted to write into Crystalline Alignment but didn't know how. This is how the magic happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crystalline Core

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place between chapters 9 and 10 of Crystalline Alignment.
> 
> For those who haven't read Crystalline Alignment, here's a little setup: Loki is banished to Earth, without his magic, and blue; Loki has been helping Tony explore the extradimensional sciences which cause the Tesseract and the arc reactors to work. They've just had dinner in Tony's penthouse.

"I want to know why you're doing this to me."

"Doing what?" Loki says, showing a face that's confused and wary.

"Making me want you."

There's surprise in Loki's eyes, and something brighter, and Tony wants to kiss him more than anything, so he does. Tony gets his surprise when the god kisses back, bringing to life a fire that's been smoldering since - well, if he's honest with himself - that moment he realized where Loki planned to stage his big show. He'd thought it was hate, and maybe it had been. But now?

Tony pulls back to look at the face he's come to know, all whispered mysteries, quiet despair and intelligence, longing and composure and determination.

Loki is impossibly, intoxicatingly beautiful.

His breathing has picked up and he's looking at Tony speculatively, calculation and desire warring in those red red eyes - Tony is lost again in another kiss he isn't even conscious of starting. His fingers slide through soft hair and God, the way Loki's tongue moves against his? Better and more thought-destroying than the burn of alcohol. How can Loki be so damn hot when he's cold to the touch? Tony is lost; he surrenders to whatever this is.

Tony breaks the kiss just long enough to climb onto Loki's lap, straddling him and locking their lips, calloused fingers brushing against the cool blue skin of his neck. This is Tony's sofa in Tony's penthouse and Tony's AI is watching and Loki is fairly conclusively without magic right now, but there is no way in which Tony feels in control right now. He's kissing the cool mouth forcefully, and Loki is responding, needy but almost passive, all small noises, small gestures, light pressures. Slim fingers hook into Tony's belt loops and less tug him closer than indicate a desire for movement. Cool thumbs tease their way into the gap between Tony's shirt and jeans, pressing, sliding up a little, then down, which Tony takes as impatience. The way the god is softly but insistently sucking on his tongue might be another clue. It's altogether too much to handle and keep level headed - it's like it's all calculated to drive him crazy, all maddeningly teasing, tempting, welcoming, and if this is all a trap it's brilliantly constructed because Tony can see it closing around him and has absolutely no desire to go anywhere but _deeper in._

Loki's slept with quite a few people since Sigyn, male and female and odder designations, species from all over the realms - out of curiosity, to scratch an itch or to achieve a goal. But he hasn't felt this - _young_ \- about the whole thing since Sigyn.

His body is taking him by surprise with the intensity of its reactions. He's slept with humans before; the necessary restraint is familiar. It's his own body that's different than it's ever been.

The warmth - the warmth feels like it's killing him. Stealing his breath, undoing all his thoughts, controls, intentions. He's dissolving into the heat, being washed away.

Tony's skin is hot against his, highlighted with sensation, so that what would be the simple brush of skin on skin, Tony's fingers on his neck, is shocking, stirring, intense in a way that's frightening. And next, and more in every way, the wetness and heat of Tony's tongue is washing up the side of his throat, hot and alive and engulfing.

Loki breathes in and there's fire in his lungs, on his skin, in his core. Every nerve is alive. He'd doubt this was happening but no dream could be this _vivid._

And there's the press of Tony's thighs against his own, the warmth and the weight somehow emphasizing this man's _realness_.

Because he had dreamed of Tony, while he had been imprisoned - not like this - a nightmare of the scepter working and the whole invasion going horribly _right_ , Tony killing the other Avengers and kneeling before him, gazing steadily with those blue blue eyes, and Loki had woken gasping, nearly weeping.

No, this is real because it's like nothing he has ever imagined. And as Tony's lips move up from his jaw and back to Loki's own, as Tony's hot pliable tongue does its best to fill up Loki's mouth, thought is dispersed, lost, and Loki groans, absorbed in sensation, arms curling around the solid heat of Tony's body and pulling them flush, and Loki's body arches slightly, pressing into the contact.

This is real and Tony is here and Tony wants him.

Life is running away from him and he's perfectly content to let it. Tony's pressed against him, kissing him hungrily, hot hands in his hair and kneading at his back. Loki's pulling him closer, breathing hard, like the fragile human body against his is all that's keeping him alive. No one's in control here.

This is Loki's life; he has a talent for chaos, for tipping the scales, for starting the snowball down the hill. He's learned to sit back and enjoy the mayhem. Really Loki is the god of "I meant to do that" moments.

He's always got plans but he's learned the hard way not to rely on any single one. He's always got several, bits and pieces and works in progress. There aren't any at the moment that involve seducing Tony Stark, but he's sure he could work it in somewhere if only his brain weren't melting under this human's touch.

And this is much, much nicer than what he has to endure for most of his plans.

Loki's absolutely going to pretend that he meant for this to happen.

Tony abandons his mouth again for his neck, and Loki tilts his head back to allow access, feeling the hot tongue and light press of teeth moving against his own pulse like a dance, frantic and fiery like Beltane. Loki gasps, then pushes Tony's shirt up to gain more access to the burning warmth of his core, and Tony lifts his arms and allows the shirt to be removed before moving his fingers to Loki's shirt buttons.

There is the reactor.

Glowing, glinting metal, like a jewel in a setting of human flesh.

By now he knows its every part and piece and all the theory, things he helped to discover as Stark Tower's resident expert on things extradimensional. But now here it is before his eyes, small and concrete and oddly insufficient-looking.

The ways we find to survive....

Tony's finished with Loki's buttons, and he's pulling back the sea green fabric from the deep blue skin, fascinated by the feel of it. More textured and yet more smooth than human skin, almost snakelike. It's when he doesn't receive any help getting the sleeves off that Tony realizes Loki has stopped responding.

"You ok there?" he asks Loki, putting a hand to the cool blue cheek, wiping away a tear Loki hadn't even known was there.

Loki just stares at the reactor for a long moment, then reaches out to brush it with his fingers. 

Tony looks down, and a little shudder runs through him to see how exposed he is...no one but Pepper has been allowed to touch this, this little machine that keeps him alive. 

The blue palm rests against the arc reactor, and Tony wonders how he can be so calm about this after what Obie did, after what Loki's done. But seeing the terrible reverence on Loki's face, he only wants to brush it away like sand; that's not important, that's just life and death.

Tony can only conclude that he's completely lost it.

He pulls Loki's chin up to kiss him again, and then says, "What, not up to spec? See any problems? Because I don't. Now where were we?"

And he kisses Loki harder, because he's already going to hell several times over and has therefore adopted a position of "if you want it, take it," and he wants Loki more than ever. He buries his hand in the god's hair, tugging at it where head meets neck, and Loki inhales sharply, his grip on Tony's hip tightening nearly to the point of pain. 

Something's changed.

Suddenly Loki's pushing back, using his inhuman strength to flip Tony off of him and onto his back on the couch, pressing his tongue into the human man's mouth and holding him down with one cool blue hand just beside the reactor. 

Tony groans into the kiss. This is good; this is better than good. He fumbles, clawing and pushing at his jeans urgently until his cock is free, and then he's gripping Loki's sides and Loki chooses that moment to slide down so that the smooth cool skin of his stomach is pressed up against Tony's cock and his mouth and hands are on Tony's chest, teeth scraping along the collarbone, fingers worrying a nipple, lips worshipfully exploring the skin around the reactor.

"Ah," Tony breathes as Loki shifts against him again, setting off sparks of sensation. "Loki, fuck yes, this is perfect." He tugs at Loki's hair again and lifts his knee to press against Loki's crotch just as the god has gotten his teeth around Tony's shoulder, and Loki gasps and bites down harder than he meant to, and Tony moans "Fuck yes" again and tightens his hand further in the silk-smooth black hair.

Loki makes an "ngh" sound through his nose and presses back against Tony's knee, squirming beautifully against Tony and still sucking at his shoulder hard enough to bruise. There is a moment of intense silence as both of them hold their breaths and just feel the pressure of flesh against flesh and the potential building between them. Then Tony gets impatient and rolls, taking Loki off guard and sending him to the floor; Tony's sitting astride him now and kissing him hotly and Loki feels like he's got a stomach full of hot coals because by the Nine, there is nothing he would rather be than conquered by Tony Stark. Loki growls and pushes at Tony in a mockery of protest as he kisses back. 

Tony spends a moment in kissing and biting at Loki's mouth, then draws back to consider. Motion catches his attention and he grins as he sees that some enterprising robot has brought baby oil out of the bathroom and set it down just beyond the corner of the couch. That one gets bonus points.

Tony shifts backward to grab it and Loki takes the opportunity to unbutton his own jeans and shed them, along with his shoes. Tony, turning back and seeing the naked blue god, feels like his brain has shorted out and so he doesn't move, and so the god, the perfect blue construction of endless, subtly curved lines and planes, springs to life and tackles him. 

So Tony finds himself landing hard, on his back on the soft rug this time, his mouth full of cool slippery tongue, cool powerful hand pulling at his pants. Tony captures that tongue between his teeth, smiling dangerously, and he can tell by the way Loki's breathing and hand falter that he's hit on something good. He takes the opportunity of that stolen moment to grip Loki's ass hard and grind them together. Loki presses into it agreeably, eagerly. Heat and cold, friction and pressure have them both moaning. Tony keeps his hands where they are as he sucks and bites Loki's neck, and Loki is rolling against him, gripping his shoulder, breathing loud and harsh in his ear. Desire is building in them both.

Loki pulls himself free to finish removing Tony's jeans, keeping the human pinned with a hand on his chest. Once he's free of his pants Tony applies quick precise leverage to the blue arm, and Loki topples to the floor beside him. The look in his red eyes is surprised and pleased as Tony, grinning, reclaims the top spot. He's leaning up on an elbow, forearm thrown across Loki's chest, kissing him forcefully, tongues pressing and sucking, which is something Tony doesn't think he'll ever get tired of.

But he most emphatically wants more.

Loki is savoring the feeling of not having a plan, of living in, and for, a moment he never expected. To be pursued, to be _wanted_ \- it's unfamiliar and entirely good, which so much has been recently. So when Tony's hot slick fingers enter him, and he's never been on this side of the arrangement, he lets it happen, and _oh,_ that's new, that's _entirely_ good.

Loki is conquered, writhing helplessly in pleasure as Tony slides inside him, hot and real and _solid._ For a moment, thought eludes him completely. And that is new, and very good.

No one's in control and everyone's winning.

Tony's gasping, making little noises that are almost swears but he doesn't even have the breath to swear. Because Loki's tight around him as he moves, more than a human _could_ be, Tony thinks, and it's incredible. 

_I'm fucking a god,_ Tony thinks, and then laughs, bright and breathless.

"What," Loki manages to gasp, "do you find so amusing?"

Tony can't reply, he's still caught up in the sensations, the tightness; he's managed to start moving somehow, and he's barely got enough air as it is.

Loki is savoring the feeling of Tony inside him, but he's still got enough presence of mind to be watching Tony, the expressions of need and pleasure crossing the human's face, the reactor in his chest shifting with him as he moves. 

Where is all this going?

Loki closes his eyes. Clearly he's still got far too much capacity to think. This needs to be remedied.

"I've heard your reputation," Loki says, and he manages to sound lazy, almost bored. "Is this really the best you can do?"

Tony laughs again. "Nah, I thought I'd start you out easy," he says between gulped breaths.

"Well then," Loki says, "get on with it."

Tony grins almost savagely and doesn't try to talk again, but instead shifts position slightly, getting better leverage, then thrusts into Loki with renewed force.

Fire. Loki is crying out and shivering with heat and melting into helpless pleasure. Tony hits the same spot again, and again, and there's the heat of a hand on his chest, on his stomach, on his cock, and heat and pleasure are everything; there's no gravity or darkness or calculation, there's only heat, there's only Tony. 

The overwhelming whiteness is just beginning to recede when Loki feels Tony come inside him, and there's another, softer wave of pleasure at knowing that he's been taken, and then warmth envelops his whole torso as Tony's chest comes down to rest on his. Tony starts to roll to the side, but Loki blocks him with a hand, and the heat of the human's body stays there, growing heavier as Tony relaxes, and Loki smiles as the perfection of the moment continues for just a little while longer and Tony's warm lips brush lightly across his neck.

It feels marvelous to belong somewhere, if only for a moment. Loki pushes his fingers into Tony's sweat-damp hair and savors everything about this moment.

Tony shifts, after a while, making a sound somewhere between a hum and a moan as he really does roll onto the rug and sit up. Loki feels bereft as the source of warmth leaves him. He makes a small noise of displeasure.

"I don't know about you but I could really use a shower," Tony says, his normal volume and tone breaking through the hush that Loki had been cultivating around his own thoughts. "Also I have this thing in the other room called a bed, not sure if you've heard of those. Anyway I plan on making good use of both those things. Join me if you want, my shower and my bed are both ridiculously large for one person and it's been way too long since anybody's taken advantage of that."

If Loki didn't know better he would think Tony was babbling like a nervous idiot.

"I would not want to impose," Loki says, sighing and sitting up as well. 

"You really wouldn't be," Tony says, standing now, the stream of words starting again. "Like I said, plenty of room. Plenty of hot water. Got some clean clothes somewhere too I bet." Tony looks Loki over, grinning unabashedly. "Although it's not like I'm in a hurry to get you back into clothes. I'd like to enjoy the view for a while first."

Loki frowns. "I am beginning to feel like I am being kept as a pet, here to be gawked at. I may have no choice about it, but I would prefer to endure no further indignities."

Tony looks stricken; there's no other way to describe it.

"Oh God," Tony says, putting a hand over his face. Then he looks out from between his fingers. "You didn't have to...you're not my prisoner or anything, yes I'm keeping an eye on you for Fury, but if anything you're my employee, not that that's so much better I guess. The point is, you were allowed to say no. To any of that." Tony bites his lip and looks at the ceiling. "That's one kind of monster I never thought I'd be...."

Loki narrows his eyes in disturbed confusion. "What are you babbling about now, Tony? I am far from helpless. I could still have killed you in an instant. I was not _unwilling._ If I had been, you would be lying cold in a pool of your own blood. If one of us in this room is deserving of the title of _monster,_ it is certainly not you."

Tony's hand is in his hair now, worrying and tugging. "Jesus, never thought I'd wish I'd paid better attention in all those harrassment awareness things Pepper dragged me to." He frowns at the floor. Then he looks at Loki again, his brown eyes pained and somehow...lonely. "I just thought...." Then his mouth curls down at the ends, nostrils flaring as if he smells something bad. "No, of course not. Why would I be more than a means to an end for you?" He rolls his eyes. "You got me. Whatever your plan is, I walked right into it, didn't I?"

Loki frowns. This isn't how things are supposed to go. He shakes his head. "I was merely enjoying your...company. I knew of your reputation, as I said, and I thought myself merely one of your conquests. Why? What was the significance of this evening to you?"

"God, I don't know! I'm terrible at this." Tony flops onto the sofa, still completely naked. "But here's what I do know. Since Obie tried to take the reactor I've let exactly three people touch it. Rhodey, Pepper, and you. Rhodey's never swung my way. Pepper and I didn't last. And I just...I'd really like for you to stick around. I'd really like...to wake up tomorrow and have you still be here."

Loki doesn't know how to reply to that, not with words. So he stands up, leans over to kiss Tony deeply and affectionately, and turning away with a smirk, he says, "In that case, I think I will take you up on that shower."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, just a reminder to go back and read [the rest of Crystalline Alignment](http://archiveofourown.org/works/505023/chapters/888493) if you got here via the link in Chapter 9.


End file.
